Calgary, AB - BW Technologies Ltd. of Calgary has revolutionized the business of making and selling gas-monitoring instruments for the resource and other industries. Now the company's founder and president Cody Slater, and Barry Moore, leader of BW's industrial design team and vice-president of product development, have received a prestigious Manning Innovation Award.

Slater, 38, was studying astrophysics at the University of Alberta when a friend in the oil and gas industry showed him an American-made gas-monitoring instrument. "I looked at this and said, 'Jeez, I could do a better job of that,'" recalls Slater, president and chief executive of BW Technologies.

He left university to develop the world's first solar-powered, wireless gas-detection system, the Rig Rat, for use on drilling rigs in remote locations. BW Technologies now makes and sells more than 25 instruments, for detecting poisonous and explosive gases, to customers around the world.

Slater teamed up with industrial designer Moore to produce BW Technologies' family of GasAlert™ portable gas detectors. The GasAlert™ family, BW's new generation of "zero-maintenance instruments, builds on the company's original line of portable detectors - the first in the industry to require no maintenance or calibration during their lifespan.

BW also pioneered the use of multi-layer circuit boards to shield instruments from interference by radio frequencies. Other BW innovations include more reliable micro-controllers, large displays that automatically illuminate in low-light conditions, and continuously monitored rotary-vane pumps for sampling gases. "Our real focus in the products has been to reduce the cost of ownership," Slater says.

A wide range of industries relies on BW Technologies' safety instrumentation, including oil and gas firms Burlington Resources, Shell Canada, Gulf Canada and Mobil-Exxon. Other clients include the cities of Calgary, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal and Sydney, Australia. The rugged and compact instruments are on the job for pulp and paper, chemical, mining and waterworks companies.

Calgary-based Burlington Resources uses BW's portable Defender gas-detector, at all its facilities, says Dave Sitar, Burlington's senior safety advisor. "The thing that we really like is its battery power. It's a good battery, it lasts a long time, and it's very cost-effective to replace them."

Mohd Faisal Hashim, at Indah Water waterworks company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, says: "The (multi-gas) GasAlertmax products are easy for my workers to use and understand. The compact size of the instruments allow easy access into and out of difficult-to-enter, confined spaces."

BW Technologies, which has averaged 40-per-cent growth during the last five years, manufactures all its instruments in Calgary. The company has more than 130 employees in offices in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, 600 distribution locations worldwide and annual revenues of over $27 million.

Slater and Moore have won the Westaim $5,000 Manning Innovation Award. The awards have recognized leading Canadian innovators since 1982 with $135,000 in annual prize money. The Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards Foundation is announcing all of this year's recipients, including the $100,000 Manning Principal Award, in September prior to the awards gala Oct. 1 in Calgary.